It’s no secret that looking for a job in the first place is a full-time job in its own right – one that comes with very few rewards unless you eventually strike gold. Now more than ever, every posting that hits the market is the stuff of frenzied and ferocious competition, with dozens or even hundreds of applicants looking to score the prime positions. According to the experts behind Active Recruit, more of these candidates than ever before are turning their attention to online recruitment agencies, which have the power and the reach to bring candidates and job postings together with unique precision and speed.

At the same time, however, there will always be those who have far more luck with these kinds of agencies than others. As for why, it all comes down to how some will do little more than go through the motions, whilst others invest their everything into getting both noticed and picked up by the right people. So with those of a more proactive nature in mind, what follows is a quick rundown of a few expert tips on how to get the most from your recruitment agency and hopefully land that golden catch before it slips the net:

1 – Talk To Them

First of all, if you limit your job hunting strategy to filling in a few forms and ticking a few boxes, you’re already behind the curve. One of the hallmarks of a solid recruitment agency these days is the willingness to speak to candidates – usually by telephone – in order to discuss everything from CV preparation to prospects and so on. If these kinds of services are offered and you’re not taking them up, you’re stunting your chances of getting ahead for no good reason.

2 – Be Honest

If you tell your recruitment agency a pack of lies about who you are and what you can do, chances are they’ll nail you an interview and perhaps give you a great recommendation. Sadly, just as soon as this stage in the process arrives and you’re outed as a fraudster, chances are the employer in question and the agency will both want nothing more to do with you. It’s often assumed that to go through an agency is to give yourself more ‘creative’ freedom when it comes to saying what’s what. In reality, this isn’t the case as given the fact that you are involving more people in the process, this means more people to take unkindly to you when you’re found out…as you will be.

3 – Use a Good One

Every recruitment agency on the web will tell you that it offers the best service and is indeed the best place to head for all the help you’ll ever need. In reality, however, many are very similar to each other and some are exponentially better/worse than their rivals. As such, it’s a good idea not to take things for granted, but to instead insist upon checking the details and background of the agency you’re thinking of choosing before you actually side with them. Just a quick web search for a few reviews and feedback should do the trick.

4 – Use More Than One

This is a great example of a situation where to put all of your proverbial eggs in one equally proverbial basket is not a good idea. Roughly translated, there are thousands of recruitment agencies doing the rounds these days and while many of them will list the same jobs, most will inherently have access to some posts that their rivals do not. And as this one post could be the perfect post for you, it really is in your best interests to use more than one along the way. Be sure to vet them to make sure they’re any good of course, but use a good handful to increase your chances.

5 – Update Your Profile and Records

Last but not least, throughout the period in which you are seeking work you should be keeping busy doing the kinds of things that will boost your profile in the eyes of employers. From unpaid work to private research to further education and so on, all of these things and more will look far better than sitting around and doing nothing. As such, you should be looking to continually update your profile and your records held with the agency as and when required, in order to prevent building the kinds of blank spaces that аre never attractive to anyone.